The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-22


exist, but he saw through his glass, f.
the cnemy's cavalry were SO strong tina
he could not venture to get closer, ond
village on the right or near bank OF thu
river and another village exactly oppo
site on the other bank and II imme-y
diately said to myself that men could not
have built two villages so close to one
another on opposite sides OF stream
without some habitual means of COM
munications, either by boats or ford
most probably the latter. On that
conjecture, or rather reasoning, in de-
fiance Of all my guides and informants.
/ took the desperate resolution, as it
seemed of marching for the river, and
was right. l found q passage, crossed
my army over. had no more to care from
the enemy's cloud of cavalry, and my ar
my, small as it was, was just enough to
fill the space between the two streams,
so that both my TANKS were secure, and
there ! fought and won the battle OF AS
save, the bloodiest for the numbers
that I ever saw and this was all from
my having the common sense to guess
that men did not build villages on the
opposite sides Of stream without some
means of communication between them.
If / had not taken that sudden resolu-
ton we were, assure you, in most
dangerous predicament.
We talked of Lamartine's description
of Bonaparte's weakness, and oven cow
ardice, towards the close of Waterloo.
He said "Of course Icould see moth
ing about it, but can hardly believe it.
/ think that even with ordinary men o
great interest would overcome personal
fear"
Croker-Perhaps it is as true as your
having had eight horses knock ed up or
killed under you. Copenhagen must
have been very old horse when j saw
him last at Strathtieldsaye, if you rode
him at Copenhagen.
Duke-Oh, no. He was not named
from my having ridden him at Copen-
hagen; his dam was blood mare which
Tom Grosvenor had in the expedition
to Copenhagen, and he called her foal
by that name, so that he must have
been foaled after 1906 Grosvenor sold
him to Charles Stewart, now London
derry, of whom, when he left the Pc
ninsula, / bought him and rode him
throughout the rest of the war, and
mounted no other horse at Waterloo.
In coming to see me las he had done
tho day but one before September (2
he (the Duke had chosen to walk from
the station to our house and without
even q guide. He said he had found
it rough walk and the ground inter
sected IN way he had ot expected; so
/ said to him: at seems you forgot to
guess what was at the other side of the
hill" This was in allusion to circum-
stance which had occurred between him
and me some thirty years before.
When travelling on the north road we
amused ourselves by guessing what sort
of country we should find at the other
side of the hills we drove up, and when
! expressed surprise at some extraordi-
nary good guesses he had made, he said !;
"Why, have spent all my life in trying
to guess what was at the other side OF
the hill"
had reminded him of this just before
we we're driving across the revive that
had impeded him, and he turned round
TO Mrs. Corker to explain it to her, ad-
ding, "All the business of war, and in
deed all the business of life, is to en-
deavor to find out what You don't know
by what you do; that's what l called
guessing what was at the other side OF
the hill"
He said the perfection Of practical war
was to move troops as steadily and cool
" on field of battle as on a parade.
"Soult's fault was that, though great
strategest, he never seemed to me to
know how to handle the troops after
the battle had begun"
/ then told him what Guizot told me
OF Lannes having said thst"le plus grand
General etuit celui que Ia cannonada
faisait meiux entendre,et que Ia fumee
faisait voir plus CLAIR" -.
Duke-Humph "a pause.) That's
only a cleverer phrase for what I have
been Just saying froid-presence
OF mind; but that is not enough; the
mind, besides being cool, must have the
art of knowing what is to be done and
how to do it.
81 certainly did not draw my sword.
1 may have ordered, and 1 dare say l
did order, the charge Of the cavalry,
and pointed out its direction; but L
did not charge as a common trooper.
II have at all times been in the hab-
it Of covering as much as possible the
troops exposed TO the fire OF cannon.
l place them behind the top of thu
rising ground and make them sit and
lie down, the better to cover them from
the fire.
AFTER the fire OF the enemy's
cannon, the enemy's troops may
hovo oIyanood IN a favnrohla onpor-